Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures

by Mary Baker Eddy

A HELPFUL TESTIMONY

Words cannot express my gratitude to God for Christian Science. When I first read Science and Health, I had tried every remedy I had ever heard of. I felt no change in mind or body that I was conscious of until I read page 16 of the chapter on " Prayer," in Science and Health. The first words of the "spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer," telling of our Father-Mother God, gave me a glimpse of heavenly light. I stopped and reasoned, and remembered the teachings of Jesus. The truth of man's spiritual being dawned on my consciousness. I realized I was not subject to mortal laws, as I had been taught all my life. I could not explain how I knew this, but I knew it. Through Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy had given me what I had longed for all my life, - a Mother, a perfect "Father-Mother God." I had known there was a great lack, and at that time I believe the orthodox world had but half of the truth which Jesus came to establish. When I read, "Give us this day our daily bread," and its spiritual interpretation, my tears began to flow; all the years of bitterness, hate, and fear melted away. I knew then, as I know now, that nothing satisfies but Love. That day began the outward and inward conscious healing, - mental and physical. There never came a doubt! I absolutely knew that Christian Science was and is the truth. Money, friends, materiality, are nothing beside the conscious knowledge of God, man, and the universe.

I did not need treatment from any one, - Science and Health was so clear and beautiful. I could not understand the Bible before, but I found it illumined now that I had a little understanding of Christian Science. For ten years I have not had to lie down in the daytime from any sickness. I am now, and have been all these years, the picture of perfect health. When I first read Science and Health I weighed one hundred and four pounds; I now weigh over one hundred and sixty. This physical health is not to be compared to my happiness, - my harmony that nothing can take away, - because it is the gift of God. Nothing has shown me the perversity of the human mind more than in its conclusions in regard to my healing. Even when I felt and knew that I was healed, people constantly said, because I was thin and delicate looking, " You are not well, any one could look at you and know it." Now that I am fleshy, they say, "You don't look as if you ever had a pain in all your life. You could not have had consumption."

When I think what my life was before I had Christian Science, of the six years of colds, suffering, and coughing, not to mention the unhappiness, I want to "work, watch, and pray " for the Mind of Christ, that I may work rightly in God's vineyard, and to know that in truth, what belongs to one belongs to all, - that one God, one Life, Truth, and Love is all. - A. C. L., Kansas City, Kans.

DESIRE FOR LIQUOR AND TOBACCO DISAPPEARED

I first heard of Christian Science four years ago. At that time drinking and smoking were my comforters. I had no other companionship. I had lived almost constantly from childhood in an evil atmosphere. Though I was far from being satisfied with my condition, I failed to see how to better it until I read Science and Health. I used occasionally to listen to a sermon, but sermons did not give me any more comfort than I derived from my pipe, hence I concluded that church-going could not satisfy me and I preferred drinking and smoking. When I began to read Science and Health, I saw it offered something substantial. After a few months' study all desire for drinking and smoking disappeared. I did not give them up; I made no sacrifices, I simply found something better. I might mention that I had smoked ever since I can remember. I used to smoke years before I left school, and, like most Englishmen, loved my pipe, and would almost prefer to miss a meal rather than to go without my smoke. I used to think it gave me comfort.

During my four years' study of Christian Science I have not spent a cent for doctors or medicine, neither have I lost a day from my work on account of sickness, which compares wonderfully with the previous four years. I take a great interest and pleasure in reading the Bible and studying the lessons in the /Quarterly/. The Bible used to be a most mysterious book to me, but Science and Health makes it a most precious book, making its meaning clearer, plainer, and simpler.

I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Mrs. Eddy and to the friend who invited me to attend the service held in the Auditorium years ago. I also wish to acknowledge the benefit I have had from the /Journal/ and the /Sentinel. /They have helped me wonderfully. If the value of Science and Health and these publications were measured as business men value things, by the results or benefits they bring, they certainly would be priceless to me. It would be impossible to measure their value, as I have got something from Science and Health that all the money in the world could not buy. - H. P. H., Chicago, Ill.

AN EXPRESSION OF LOVING GRATITUDE

In the spring of 1893, while studying for the ministry, Science and Health was placed in my hands, and the truth contained therein at once became to me the pearl of great price. I literally devoured the book, reading it about eighteen hours a day. Its originality was startling, upsetting my preconceived opinions of God, man, and creation. Two sentences especially appealed to me: "The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin" (p. 262), and, "For right reasoning, there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence " (p. 492). I had found the keynote to the Science of being as taught in this marvellous book, and persevered until a glimpse of the new heavens and new earth came, for the old were passing away. With this spiritual uplifting came also physical health.